Friday, January 29, 2010

Help! (Valentine's Day)

Maybe it's this stupid cold, that persists in moving back and forth between my sinuses and my lungs, but I have no ideas.

The other "room mom" and I are in charge of the kids' Valentine's day party at pre-school.  We can delegate, assuming that the other parents stop screaming and running in the other direction when they see us coming.  We are supposed to come up with a (nut free) snack, a craft, and a game or activity.

I have no ideas.  Zip.  Zilch.

Well, that's not entirely true - I have ideas, but they're all inappropriate.  I don't know WHY my mind went immediately to Spin the Bottle when they said "game," it just did.  I'm so wrong.  Don't judge me.

(In my defense, in The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday they play Spin the Bottle at Sister Bear's sixth birthday party.  That's a parenting decision that makes me say, "WTF?" every time we read it.  But I digress...)

I'm considering telling my co-room-mom that I'll do the snack (and I'll just get some pretty cupcakes at the store because I'm lazy and also I suck at cake decorating) if she'll do the other two, but I don't want to be a jerk about it.

So, I thought I'd appeal to my most creative readers.  Any great Valentine's day ideas for preschoolers of the snack, game, or craft variety?

5 comments:

angel0199 said...

Just take ordinary games and make them Valentine’s themed. Like hot potato can be pass the heart. If you have heart shaped cookie cutter you can make cookies, little sandwiches, or jello jigglers shaped like hearts. You could read a Valentine themed book. Here are a few games a found oline-

Heart Numbers
Cut several large hearts. Cut the hearts in half (from the middle of the humps to the point) Then put a number on one half and a corresponding number of dots (or stickers) on the other. Have your children try to match the heart halves.

Candy Sort
Put Valentines Hearts in an area and let your children sort them by color. You can also use paper hearts to sort this way.

Heart Match
Create a large heart on poster board. Divide the heart into nine sections. Cut out different colored hearts and paste one in each section. Cut out a match of each of these hearts and then let your children match the hearts

What's On the Heart
Cut one heart for every child in your class. Cut different interesting magazine pictures out and put them on a heart. Have your children pull hearts out of a bag and tell you what is on it (if they are older children have them pull the heart out and tell you what it is used for, or something that rhymes with the object, etc)

angel0199 said...

here is a good craft

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/valentines-day/kids-crafts/heart-ornament-tissue.html

it involves wadding up tissue paper which is good for those fine motor skills.

I love class parties. Of course not so much when I am sick.

Anonymous said...

I could get a drawing of a real heart and the kids could color and label the atria, ventricles, valves and such. Nothing like realism starting early in life.

Anonymous said...

At Marc's daycare (15mos - 2yrs) we're doing chocolate fondue! That's like an activity and a snack all in one, right? We're going to dip lg marshmallows, pretzel rods, strawberries, rice crispie squares, etc. and it'll be messy and fun and oh so yummy. :)

For a craft you could do handprints in the shape of a heart (fingers pointing together w/the heels of the hand as the lobes of the heart) on heart cut-outs. Or...hmmm.... they could decorate with glitter, etc. some paper flowers and then glue them onto stems (either paper or big, fat green pipe stem cleaners) so each kid gets to give a bouquet to their mom for v-day.

Christy Lee said...

I think what I'm doing for Waylon's preschool party -- snack-wise -- is giving each kid a banana with a heart attached, saying, "I'm bananas for you," or something along those lines. That would take care of the snack.

As for games or crafts, I am terrible in that area. Sorry... no help! :)